Sensis update – the advertisements are gone

Both of the Sensir URLs mentioned earlier in the article are now 404 – that’s a good thing.

medrx.sensis.com.au/content/SkyAuction/106804/skyauction_300x250.swf  – dead

medrx.sensis.com.au/content/SkyAuction/106804/skyauction_728x90.swf – dead

Now, if only we could get the problems in the USA and UK cleaned up as easily – I’ll be posting later about very similar redirects that are hitting visitors to allmusic.com and another site as soon as I get the chance to catch my breath and analyse the network captures that have been sent to me via email.

Now, a word of warning.  Sensis and all other sites are going to have to be very careful going forward.  The MalwareAlarm hijacks are hitting sites all over the world – the USA, the UK and now Australia.  There is simply no alternative to doing what is necessary to set up the infrastructure and expertise to decompile and examine each and every Flash creative that is submitted for display on their sites.  Unless and until such steps are taking, such infiltrations as happened to Sensis and so many other sites and advertising networks will continue to happen.

You may wish to review this link to help understand why this stuff gets into the advertising networks in the first place:

Winfixer hide ‘n’ seek: explaining why some people see the ads, and some people don’t
http://msmvps.com/blogs/spywaresucks/archive/2007/08/24/1134527.aspx